//------------------------------// // Story 3: Twillera's Dream // Story: Flashfics, Gifts, Scraps, etc. // by ViTheDeer //------------------------------// "Just a sip, to help me sleep, I promise!" Twillera reached a hoof towards the bottle of whiskey sitting on the center of the table. "No! You promised!" Midnight slapped her hoof away with a disapproving glare at Twillera. Twillera looked back at her, the look both hurt and pleading. She gave a frustrated scream and trotted up the stairs, slamming the door to the bedroom Midnight and she shared. She could hear Midnight follow her up the stairs, but she paused in front of the closed door, hesitating before deciding to give Twi some time to herself. Twi climbed into the bed she and Midnight shared, and sometimes invited Double Click, their mutual fiancee, into. She curled up, holding a pillow between her legs, and gently began rocking as sobs wracked her body. Despite all her expectations, she was asleep in minutes. --- Shapes, indistinct and fuzzy. Sounds, words perhaps, but beyond comprehension. Twi feels like she is in a familiar, comforting place. The shapes and sounds coalesce into her family. Father, mother, and younger brother, sitting around the dinner table. Words, still indistinct, but raised in anger. Twi speaks up. Father raises a hoof and brings it down across Twi's face. Tears streaming down her face, she gallops out the door. The door leads not outside, but into the kitchen. There, she finds a box of matches. She idly strikes one after the other, tossing them to the floor as they burn to the bare end. She strikes one and watches it intently. She drops it before it burns out, watching the flame flare up as it tumbles end over end, landing in the wastebasket. Instead of trying to put it out, she flaps her wings a few times to fan the flames. The papers in the basket quickly catch fire, and soon the flames begin to reach higher, a cascading inferno that swallows the wall of the kitchen, and quickly spreads to the rest of the room. Twi is in the center of the flames, but somehow is not burned. The flames for faces. Her father, her mother. Her younger brother. His face cries out in pain, as the flames consume his body. Twi reaches out to stop the burning, but can't reach him. She trips and falls, tears rolling down her face as she watches her brother writhe and shriek... then silenced. The flames turn into trees. She is on the floor of a forest grove, looking at the smoking ruins of their house in the first rays of Celestia's sun. No, she tried to say. It wasn't me! I didn't do it! Not this time, I swear! The trees stare her down with disapproval and hatred. They fade away, and Twillera is alone. She is in darkness. In the distance, she sees a light. She gallops towards it. The wind rushes by her ears. The wind begins to form word. You are not welcome here, you are no daughter of mine, you killed him, you, you, you... She reaches the light. It's the door to a small room, lit by a single bulb. She steps through, and the door vanishes. There are no doors or windows in the room. She lies on the ground, sobbing. Suddenly, she is in pain. Blows rain down on her body from an unseen assailant. She puts up her hooves to ward off the attack, but that only causes them to fall harder. She blinks the tears out of her eyes, and sees her drill sergeant from fight academy. You are a failure, a washout, you are a black mark in the history of Cloudsdale flight school. Tears fill Twillera's eyes, and the shape of the room faded away, walls disappearing into the distance. The attack stops, and Twillera shakes her head to clear away the tears. She stands, and tries to get her bearings. She starts slowly walking in a random direction, but doesn't get far before her hoof strikes something lying on the ground. It clatters across the stone floor. She looks down and picks it up. Her reflection stares back at her in the gleaming metal knife. Her regularly golden eyes look red from crying. The red spreads from her eyes to the rest of her face. She drops the knife, now covered in a red, sticky substance. It lands with dull thud, and Twillera looks down to see a body, slashed and covered in blood. Horrified, she backs away quickly. The ceiling closes down on her. The body begins to stand, blood dripping from its sliced sides. It stares at her, eyes glassy. Twi stares back, and begins to see her own face overlaid over that of the pony. Confused, she blinks, and realizes she is staring through a pane of glass. A light flares up on the opposite side, and once Twi’s eyes have adjusted, she sees that the form of pony on the other side of the glass has changed to that of her dear friend and ward, Midnight. She runs to the glass, pounds on it, screams against it, trying to get Midnight’s attention. It’s no use, midnight turns from her and sits on the ground. Her body shakes with tears that Twi can’t see, but knows are there. She flings herself against the glass, putting her whole weight into each throw, It buckles but does not give. On the third throw she feels her shoulder pop out of its socket, feels a rib crack. Midnight continues crying, and Twillera collapses in a heap, pain coursing through her body. Midnight is growing more and more distant. Twi cries out once more, and Midnight turns to face her. Then she is gone, and the light extinguishes. Twillera lies there, broken and alone. Flashes. A knife cutting into warm flesh. Hooves being held over a raging fire. A piano wire being pulled tight against a throat. Screaming. Crying. Fire. Blood. Pain. Twillera sees her own body, as if hovering above herself. She is bleeding from many cuts and scratches. Her wings are broken and tattered. There is blood everywhere. Suddenly, her eyes open, and Twi realizes that it’s not her body, but Midnight’s lying beneath her. She was too late. Too late. I’m sorry, Midnight, I was too late! Too late! too... ---- Twi jerked upright in bed. Where is she? Where’s Midnight? Frantically, her eyes dart around the darkened room, but her ears perk up at the sound of regular breathing nearby. Cautiously, she turned her head towards the sound, and saw Midnight there, eyes closed peacefully, the hint of a smile curled on her lips. Twillera reached out a hoof to the bedside table, behind which she had hidden a flask of whiskey for those nights she couldn't get to sleep without the warm feeling in the pit of her stomach. As she reached for it, however, one of Midnight’s hindlegs kicked out in the throes of some dream. Twillera pulled back her hoof, used it to wipe the sweat from her brow, rolled over and cuddled close to her lover. She closed her eyes. --- Shapes, indistinct and fuzzy. Sounds, words perhaps, but beyond comprehension. Twi feels like she is in a familiar, comforting place...